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AT&T vs. Google: Updating the Status of Call Blocking

Posted on October 12, 2009 |

The history of the dispute over carriers blocking calls to some rural phone exchanges to avoid high fees is somewhat more tangled that what I described in an earlier post.

AT&T spokesman Michael Balmoris points out that, contrary to the assertion of Google's Richard Whitt, AT&T never requested FCC authority to block calls. It did briefly block calls to some exchanges and, when ordered to resume placing them, sent a request to the FCC that it investigate "traffic-pumping" by rural carriers. The FCC opened a regulatory proceeding in October, 2007, but has taken no action.